A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to maintaining identification data with selected individual plants whether in or taken from field, growing bed, plot, greenhouse, or other growing location, and using that individualized identification data over a period of time and events to maintain correlation of individual plants with traits or characteristics of those selected plants. In one aspect, such associated data can be used to make decisions regarding use of a plant or its progeny. One example is use to advance a breeding or genetic line.
B. Problems in the Art
It is conventional in the art of plant advancement or plant breeding experiments to plant seed of known parentage in plots. Sets or populations of seed (e.g. soybean varieties or corn inbreds or hybrids of like parentage, or genetically engineered plants) are planted together and records are kept to index the location of each set relative to plots or sub-divisions of the plot. In some cases, records are kept of the location of each plant in the plot.
After the seed emerge and plants develop from the seed, the plants can be tested or evaluated by methods well known in the art to derive information about traits or characteristics of the plants. In one example, leaf punches can be taken from selected plants, and then analyzed by methods known in the art for such things as traits or characteristics or genetic make-up. Other types of evaluation can be used including, but not limited to non-destructive evaluation or mere observation, to derive some trait or characteristic of the plant.
There can be one or two, or a significant number of, evaluations or observations, e.g. 70-100 or more, that are recorded for each selected plant. Conventionally, this is done by recording the location of a selected plant in the plot in a notebook, and adding hand-written observations or test results related to the plant or to a punch taken from the plant. Location information is usually possible because of the commonly used indexed grid for such plots (a two-dimensional matrix). Thus, there is a record correlating plant position in a plot and trait(s) or characteristic(s) of interest about the plant.
Also present conventional methods do include attempts to maintain information specific to individual plants at least through part of the process. But a worker has to refer back to notes when looking for plants with desired traits or characteristics, and then physically go out to the plot, locate desired plants, harvest them, and bring them to the threshing site. This is cumbersome, time-consuming and subject to human error. Lap top and hand-held computers may take away some of the issues associated with manual, handwritten record keeping, but still problems and deficiencies remain.
Even using the above-described record-keeping method, once a plant is harvested and no longer in a fixed, indexed position in a plot, there is a loss of correlation between plant and notebook data. It is difficult or unmanageable to harvest a plurality of plants, thresh them, and individually keep track of which plant came from which location in the plot; not to mention which seed came from which plant. While this, theoretically, could be done by keeping close track of which plant is from which location in the plot; it would be difficult and impractical to do. Therefore, it is not impossible to maintain correlation between sets of harvested plants and the plot in which they grew, but it is not realistically possible and practical; and it is even more difficult to maintain correlation between individual plants, parentage, and specific plot location throughout this type of process. Even in single plant threshing methods, where selected plants are individually picked from the field plot and then brought to a threshing location and threshed one by one; to keep accurate track of each individual plant is difficult or impossible, given practical resource and economic constraints.
Many times it is the progeny of the plants, e.g. its seed, that is desired and useful for possible further use. Even if location of a plant in a plot and its associated traits or characteristics are keyed into a database, or are logged in a handwritten notebook ledger, when decisions arise about what types of traits or characteristics are needed, e.g. for a plant breeding or advancement experiment, the pre-recorded information is reasonably suited for identifying plants that fit the need, and even for finding their location in the field plot. However, it is not well suited to maintain an exact correlation of each plant's traits and characteristics with each plant when it comes time to harvest and thresh the plant for its seed.
In the present state of the art utilizing the above-described procedures in plant breeding or advancement experiments, plants are selected as candidates for a plant advancement experiment by evaluation of the information recorded in a notebook or a computer. The selected plants are individually located by referring to recorded grid location (with some risk of human error), and harvested (pulled, cut down, or otherwise removed from the ground). Plants from the same plot or population may be maintained segregated from other harvested plants, but are normally taken back en masse to the threshing location. Correlation between individual plants and their locations in the plot is lost, as is any ability to match a plant to recorded data about the specific plant. They are individually threshed (by hand or mechanized) but in essentially random order. Therefore, although the seed is from the same population of plants, only generalized characterizations can be made of the population because it is not precisely known which seed came from which plant. Data can not be tied to each individual plant. Each population has to be generalized as to which genes or traits, for example, they possess. The generalized characterizations are believed by many persons to be reasonable because the threshed seed should be from the same population. But only generalized characterizations can be made and, thus, only generalized characterizations are available to make decisions as to how to use plants in breeding or plant advancement programs.
This makes the selection process more complicated, especially once the population has made it to more advanced stages of testing. It is well known in the art that plants growing from two different seed of the same parentage may develop non-identical traits or characteristics, just as human children from the same parents may. Thus, decision-making based on generalizations, rather than by evaluating traits or characteristics of individual plants, is not as flexible or accurate as might be desired.
These problems exist in plant breeding programs and experiments, as well as in experiments that are focused on identifying, tracking, modifying, or advancing a genetic trait or characteristic. As used herein, the term “plant breeding or advancement experiment” will be used to generically refer to any type of program to identify, track, modify or advance a trait or characteristic of a plant, whether by breeding or genetic identification and manipulation methods. To distinguish between breeding and genetic methods, the term “genetic modification experiment” will be used to identify genetic methods.
Breeding and genetic methods and techniques can be used together. For example, it is common in the art to use genetic methodologies in a plant breeding program. For further example, plant breeding techniques known in the art and used in a maize plant breeding program include, but are not limited to, recurrent selection, backcrossing, double haploids, pedigree breeding, restriction fragment length polymorphism enhanced selection, genetic marker enhanced selection, and transformation. Often a combination of these techniques is used.
The term “characteristic” is intended to be broad and cover any discernable, measurable, or objective or subjective feature, constituent, trait, tendency, fact or supposition about or related to a plant or its seed or parentage.
There is a real need in the art to have an apparatus, method and/or system for keeping more individualized information about individual seeds or plants through at least a part of their growing cycle, and/or thereafter.
An approach to autonomously derive information related to traits or characteristics of plants when harvesting them is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,384 issued Nov. 16, 1999 to inventor Matson. A mechanized automotive thresher is outfitted with equipment that can non-destructively attempt to derive traits or characteristics from plants or seed as they are being harvested and/or threshed in the field. This patent discloses much state of the art information about how conventional experimental plots are set up and indexed by location. This patent also discusses conventional issues and methods of how determinations are made whether to keep or discard seed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,384, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, relates to harvesting entire plots mechanically, but also is an example of a method employing generalized characterizations in the context of such experimental plant breeding plots. There is no way to know precisely which mechanically harvested and threshed seed relates to which harvested plant. Therefore, even the method of this patent has accuracy and other problems because of lack of particular and specific correlation of data about a set of seed from a plant from its planting to its future use.
There are other situations wherein it would be beneficial to maintain identifying data about individual plants correlated to other data about the plant in machine-readable form attached or closely associated with the plant.